News

Net farm incomes fall again in Minnesota

Most Minnesota farms saw lower earnings in 2017.

In its annual analysis, the University of Minnesota calculates median farm income at $28,500 dollars, down from about $36,000 a year earlier.

Minnesota Extension economist Dale Nordquist says working capital is slowly eroding.

“When you have so many years in a row where you’re just kind of treading water, and there’s capital demands on these farms.  They need to be replacing their equipment and repaying their debts obviously, so it is a slow bleed.”

He tells Brownfield corn and soybean operations led the way down for Minnesota farm incomes in 2017.

Meanwhile, dairy and livestock producers experienced mixed results.

“The net income for dairy farms was actually up (in 2017), which I know is not what dairy farmers are experiencing right now.  Profits for the first half of the year were really good, and then the bottom fell out of the market.”

Minnesota beef farms lost money for a third consecutive year, netting a loss of $3,800 dollars.

The lone bright spot was pork, where producers saw median incomes jump from almost $5,000 dollars in the red to profits of more than $122,000 in 2017.

“Pork producers tend to be some of our bigger operators, so even a $100,000 dollar profit, if you’ve got several million dollars of investment, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing really well.  But at least it puts you in the black for the year.”

The University of Minnesota Center for Farm Financial Management used more than 2,100 survey results, representing about 10 percent of commercial farmers in the state.